NAVAL EPIC

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 15 September 1926, Page 5

NAVAL EPIC

THE WANHSIEN AFFAIR.

STORY or THE ENCOUNTER

CHINESE: SET DEADLY TRAP

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. - SHANGHAI, Sept. 14. The Wanhsien art air is claimed as an epic in British naval history. An investigation reveals that the commander or the expedition, Captain Dariey, fought in the Sydney-Ein-den encounter at Cocos Island in 1914. (-Bring to the difficulty of communications'belated ' reports are only just arriving. Details gleaned from the wounded who arrived at Hankow described the affair as the bloodiest in Chinese waters, resembling- the old-time pirate atrocities ol the eighteenth century.

As previously reported, the armed merchantman Kaiwo. was fitted with boiler-plate protection, and equipped with pom-poms fore and aft and several machine-guns and Lewis guns. An expedition consisting of officers and 563 ratings went secretly up the streams, camouflaging the craft en route no that she was unrecognisable. The European officer* of the commandeered steamers Wansian and Wantung were being held as hostages, and as a result the expedition decided unon their rescue.

The Kaiwo, approaching the former, arranged to send four boarding parties away simultaneously on a surprise attack. They discovered that 400 Chinese soldiers aboard had prepared a deadly trap, though a few loungers only were visible bo the approaching parties. These disappeared when the Kaiwo threw grappling irons on to the steamer and the men prepared to board her.

The first one aboard was. shot with a rifle, and then a bugle startled the hoarders, who leapt and met devastating machine-gun fire fro'm all angles. Scores of riflemen were concealed in the cargo.

At first the British suffered the majority of casualties, until the appearance of swarms of soldiers on deck, when the Ivaiwo’s pompoms, Lewis and machine-guns made full play, heaping the dead soldiers until they rolled into the river on the port side. The imprisoned officers of the Wanhsien were discovered on the bridge. Meantime • Commander Dariey and others on the bridge of the Kaiwo were sniping, being fed with ammunition by' a loyal Chinese pilot. Evidently Cosraunder Darlev decided' to capture the Wanhsien. With a revolver in each hand lie exhorted his followers leaped on to the Wanhsien, and fired twice before he dropped riddled by machinegun bullets, whereupon the Chinese rushed him and stabbed him everywhere. When 300 of the enemy were dead the others made a frenzied rush on to the Kaiwo, but were beaten back with^difficulty and,the expenditure of the last cartridge. It was therefrn-e decided to cut adrift and retire.

A French gunboat was a silent witness of everything. The Kaiwo was approaching the Wantung to rescue the officers when the Chinese tried to murdot* the latter, and one was shot. In the meantime the British gunboats Cockchafer and Widgeon were busy silencing the shore guns with deadly a ini', the Widgeon concentrating on the soldiery and the Cockchafer on the town, which was destroyed by shells and finally burned completely. The headquarters of General Yangsen were demolished and the artillery mined. The Kaiwo retired down stream, lacking fuel, and with a crew almost hysterical as a result of their ghastly experience. The latest estimate" of the Chinese casualties at Wanhsien is 500 killed and as many wounded. Wanhgjen is situated 1200 miles from Shanghai and 600 miles .from Hankow, through deep gorges, impassable except to shallow draught vessels specially designed. It is a three days journey from Hankow to Wanhsien.